Sunday, May 29, 2011

We've had a sad few days in our household. Our sweet dog, Spencer, had to be put to sleep on Friday.

We noticed that he hadn't been eating for the past few days, and that his stomach was kind of swollen looking. When Kevin tried to get him to play fetch with his favorite little rag toy and he wouldn't, we knew that something was really wrong.

After an emergency trip to the vet, x-rays showed a huge mass in his abdomen - almost taking up every inch of his little body. He was anemic and likely had internal bleeding. Surgery wasn't really an option.

We had friends coming from out-of-town for the holiday weekend, and wanted to know if we could bring him home, make our decision and let them know on Tuesday, but they advised against it, saying that Spencer was likely in a lot of pain and it wouldn't be good for him. We loaded up the kids (and us) in the car, and went back to the vet to say our final, tearful goodbyes.

I'll miss him! Shortly after Kevin and I got married, I told him that I either wanted a baby or a puppy. Kevin jumped on the puppy bandwagon, and Spencer joined our family. He has been a super sweet addition - the kids adored him, and he loved them, too! Rest in peace, sweet boy.

Newborn Spencer with his brothers and sisters:

Sweet, playful puppy:

At 1-year-old, right before Megan was born:Spencer with 1-week-old Megan. He LOVED to be close to her!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

When I find new blogs, I tend to compulsively read the whole thing, so that I haven't missed anything, and then wait and wait and wait for each new entry. Not with this one.

I followed the link from my friend, Michelle's, blog, and I can't get enough! It's called Do They Have Salsa in China? It follows a California family that has twin girls adopted from China. I started out reading it because adoption is near and dear to my heart (2 of my nephews are adopted from Russia and 2 of my cousins have adopted from China). I thought it would be a typical "adoption story" blog, which would make me cry with each entry and be ready to fly overseas to adopt a child, but this one is different! It's partly about their lives, partly about food, and partly shows off the amazing crafts that they do together.

With all this cool stuff, do you know what excites me the most? The amazing photographs! Wow! I wonder if the mom is a photographer or something! The colors and composition are amazing! It makes me want to dress the kids up in colorful, crazy outfits, find something green outside and park them in front of it while I click away! Just gorgeous! Because I'm so in awe of the pictures, I'm taking my time with this blog, reading leasurily when I have the time.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

You may have heard this one before, I certainly have, but I feel like it is worth putting in here for when I forget...

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard.

The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall.

In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.

In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened.

He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap, and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.

As he rushed into the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.

He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?"

She again smiled and answered, "You know how yesterday you came home from work and asked me what in the world do I do all day?"

"Yes," was his incredulous reply.

She answered, "Well...today I didn't do it."

* Many thanks to my dear friend, Giselle, who posted it on her blog and had it stolen by me. Love you, girl!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Easter this year was very low-key. For the last 6 weeks, we haven't had an entire weekend at home together (I was gone for my half-marathon, we were at my parents for Spring Break, we visited Kevin's family twice, Kevin had a work trip, I went home for my uncle's funeral, etc.). Because of all this, we decided to just stay at home alone. Of course, this meant that I had to miss out of my mom's Easter cookies (BOO!) and the kids having an egg hunt at my in-laws (double BOO!) but we didn't have to travel anywhere!

My sweet, "save the Earth" girls decided that we needed to recycle our old Easter eggs. When we got their baskets out of the attic, we found a huge bag full of empty plastic eggs. Meg then wrote the Easter Bunny a note, asking him to just fill up however many of them he wanted, rather than give us "new" eggs. So sweet! Of course, the Bunny Man had no problem doing that, and the kids felt like they did something great for the planet!

The kids got way too much stuff (but blessedly, not much candy), including books, a movie each (Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, The Princess Diaries and Gulliver's Travels) and summer t-shirts.After going through all their loot, it was time to get all gussied up for church.Megan decided that even Mom and Dad needed a picture in the sunshine (truthfully, I think she just likes playing with my fancy camera)!I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Monday, April 18, 2011

After seeing my friend Michelle's blog, I decided it was time for some "spring cleaning" on mine. I'm not 100% sure if I'm in love with the new layout, but I'm going to leave it up for a bit and see if it grows on me. If not, it's easy to change!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Monday, April 11, 2011

Haven't done one of these in a while! In fact, it seems like we've had nothing but convenience foods lately! Not sure why that's been the case, but I'm ready to get back to semi-healthy eating and cooking again! Because of that, here's this week's menu:

ETA: What's wrong with the spacing? Sorry if this is hard to read - I'm having some blogger issues. Okay...all kinds of issues! The time is wrong, too! I posted this while Owen was napping - about 1:30 or so! Argh!

I'd like to say that I've been doing something productive with my time, like writing the Great American Novel, volunteering with the homeless or training for a marathon (hey...wait! I DID run a half-marathon!), but really, it's been pretty quiet around here. Normal life stuff, and with my Lenten internet break (I'm only allowing myself to be on when the kids are in bed or on my phone when I'm waiting in the pick-up line at school), I haven't been around much. I did, however, feel like visiting here today, and hopefully I'll get back at it soon!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Wow! I didn't realize it had been so long since I've updated. I guess there really hasn't been much excitment in our house lately! Busy with school, work and life in general, but nothing truly noteworthy has been going on!

On February 25, Megan turned NINE! I'm still not quite sure how that happened! I keep asking her to stop growing up, but you know how obstinate kids can be! ;-)

Hopefully I'll get back in the habit of posting here. Facebook has sucked a lot of my time lately, and for Lent, I'm giving up the internet during daylight hours (I'll only be on early in the morning and late at night, when the kids are in bed). My one exception will be checking Facebook and my email on my phone when I'm waiting in the car for school pick-up! Wish me luck!

My first "award"!

Who's looking at this?

What I do when I'm not on the internet:

What I do all day...

wake up the kids, make breakfast, take the dog out, change diapers, wash faces, pack lunchboxes, get them off to school, run errands, feed the dog, wash the dishes, wash the clothes, pick them up from school, make a snack, referee fights, check the homework, make dinner, do puzzles, build with blocks, give baths, pick up the toys, read a story, say prayers, tuck into bed, get a drink of water, get ANOTHER drink of water, chase away monsters, tuck back into bed, pay the bills, remember how to be a wife...all while I'm eating bon-bons!